Chinese medical student, 18, does CPR on friend who suffered cardiac arrest in car, gets to retake exam

An 18-year-old medical student in China saved his classmate, who went into cardiac arrest, by performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in the backseat of a ride-hailing car.

Jiang Zhaopeng and his classmate were on their way to their spring college entrance exam when the emergency occurred, China Daily reported.

Both attend Shandong City Service Technician College in Yantai, a coastal city in Shandong province.

Video footage of incident

The sequence of events was caught on camera inside the car.

The duo boarded the car at about 8:10am.

Went limp suddenly

Just a minute later, the classmate collapsed onto Jiang's lap.

He displayed signs of a heart attack, seizure and cardiac arrest.

"I thought he was just tired at first," Jiang said.

However, the classmate started to gasp, convulse, and violently kicked the front seat.

He went limp and stopped breathing.

Quickly reacted

Jiang quickly reacted by applying the first aid skills that he had learned in school.

He laid his classmate flat and began performing CPR and breathing into the victim's mouth.

Jiang also told the driver: "Go to the hospital."

Driver beat red lights to get to hospital

The driver then alerted the local traffic police and sped to the hospital.

He beat six red lights and arrived in just seven minutes, which was half the usual time.

Told school what happened

Only after ascertaining that his classmate was receiving medical treatment, Jiang notified school officials about the emergency.

However, he arrived too late to take the 9am Chinese language test.

Doctors later confirmed that Jiang's classmate would recover without brain damage.

"The first four minutes of CPR in the car were absolutely vital," Yang Haiyan, head of the emergency department at the East Hospital of Yantaishan Hospital, said.

A total of 29 minutes of resuscitation in the hospital and eight defibrillations was carried out before the man's heartbeat stabilised at 8:50am, the doctor added.

Jiang said he did not regret his decision, which made him miss his exam.

"Exams can be retaken, but a life cannot," he said.

Top photos via China Daily